


On the First Day of Christmas

by sunkelles



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Gen, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 20:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13151580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: M'gann and Conner's first Christmases coincide with Zatanna's first one without her father.





	On the First Day of Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [titaniumsansa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/gifts).
  * Inspired by [We've Got You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10634775) by [titaniumsansa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/pseuds/titaniumsansa). 



> 2 more merry christmas fics! so i wrote 2 fics about zatanna's first christmas without her dad because i'm evvvillll

M’gann loved human culture when she watched her tv shows on Mars. She loved how fun the dances looked and the styles and the misunderstandings and the baked goods people would make as peace offerings when they messed up. She thinks that her favorite part of all of human culture, though, was Christmas. 

 

She’s so excited that Christmas is finally coming. She’s ready to bake cookies and wear a red hat and sing the ritual songs and put pretty things and lights up on a dead tree and watch the chestnuts pop (whatever that means). She’s ready to kiss Conner under whatever a mistletoe is and find out whoever this “Jack Frost” is and why he would nip at her nose. 

M’gann is ready. She’s so ready to have a very Megan Christmas this year. 

“I thought that people put Christmas trees up the morning after Thanksgiving?” M’gann asks. That’s how they always did it on her shows. 

“Um,” Zatanna says, “I guess so. It’s just- it’s eight o’clock. How did you already decorate the whole place?” 

“Strength of will,” M’gann tells her. Conner chooses right then to march in. 

“Christmas is stupid,” Conner says. 

“But you’ve never celebrated it!” M’gann says. 

“I have all the knowledge that CADMUS could put into my brain. I know that it seems like a soulless commercial grab.” 

“But Conner-” 

“LexCorp makes millions of dollars off that holiday annually. I don’t want anything to do with it,” Conner says. Zatanna looks between the two of them, and then sighs. 

“A little help Zee?” M’gann asks. Zatanna shakes her head. 

“I’m not getting involved in this one, not for Mrs. Claus or Mr. Scrooge. You two can work it out for yourselves.” Then, Zatanna walks back to her room. 

The next day, M’gann decides to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It’s one of the most famous Christmas specials, so it must be one of the best. Conner won’t even come out of the kitchen to watch it. 

“Oh come on, Conner. This is cute,” M’gann says, “look at those little reindeer! Rudolph is a Christmas classic, I think.” Conner peaks his head into the living area for a moment. 

“Sure. One where the moral is that deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable,” Conner says with a completely straight face as he disappears back into the kitchen. 

“That’s not what this movie is about!” M’gann says. Conner comes back out with a can of coke. 

“I’m pretty sure it is,” he says. Then, he takes a long swig as he walks back up to his room. M’gann shoves her hand into her bowl of popcorn, and crunches it angrily. She watches the rest of the movie, and realizes that no one likes Rudolph except his misfit friends until he helps save Christmas. M’gann glares at the screen. She hates when Conner is right.

_ Deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable.  _   
  


The next day, M’gann tries a different special: The Grinch That Stole Christmas. It’s apparently just as famous as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but as far as M’gann can tell, the moral is not “deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable” so it’s already off to a better start than the first one. 

“He’s just a dude living his life, and they assault his whole character,” Conner says. 

“That’s not what happens,” M’gann says, even as the movie sings “your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch.” She listens to the rest of the song, and then watches the movie.  The Grinch’s heart grows three sizes, but M’gann’s not sure how she feels about the special. She’s not sure how she’s starting to feel about Christmas, either. 

The world, she finds, is saturated with Christmas specials. Some of them are good, most are okay, and some of them are just plain awful. The deeper she looks into this holiday, the more she thinks Conner might be right. There isn’t a soul here like there were for her holidays on Mars. It’s just a cash grab, just a silly way to sell Christmas lights and Santa hats and convince people they need to buy more presents that anyone could ever use. 

Santa almost goes to jail but is saved by the US postal system. Grandma gets run over by a reindeer. Santa quits and two bickering brothers sing about temperatures. Tim Allen kills Santa and then becomes him. A tall human man is raised as an elf and meets his terrible father. It takes  _ four  _ ghosts to convince Ebenezer Scrooge that he should care about other people again.  Christmas specials aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be. 

The music isn’t any less strange. Santa Claus almost murders the lead singer of The Killers. Mariah Carey just wants her baby back. Someone gives away Wham!’s heart. Three wise men give a shivering baby precious metals instead of a blanket. There’s something about a redneck reindeer, a fruitcake, and some girl always trying to seduce Santa to get him to buy her better gifts. 

The more M’gann learns about Christmas, the less she actually likes it. By the time that the 23rd rolls around, she’s not sure she really wants to celebrate it anymore at all. 

Christmas music wafts from the kitchen along with the smell of cookies. 

_ Rockin’ around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop  _

“Megan!” Zatanna calls, “come in here and try these cookies!” M’gann comes into the kitchen, and sees Zatanna. She’s already wearing a bright red sweater with a white Z on it, and a Santa hat to match. She sets a cookie in M’gann’s hand. 

“Try this,” she orders, and M’gann pops it in her mouth. It’s a warm burst of peanut butter and chocolate in her mouth. 

“This is really good,” M’gann says. 

“Where’s your sweater,” Zatanna says, looking to her in confusion, “you’ve been wearing them for weeks.

“I’m not celebrating,” M’gann says. 

“I thought you liked Christmas?” Conner chooses exactly this moment to rear his bah humbug head. 

“Nope,” Conner says. He does take a cookie off the cooling rack, though. 

“I meant Megan,” Zatanna says, “and you don’t get cookies if you don’t like Christmas, Mr. Grinch.” 

“You gave Artemis cookies and she doesn’t celebrate Christmas,” Conner points out. 

“Because she’s Buddhist and not an asshole about what I celebrate, you dip,” Zatanna says. Conner shrugs. 

“But really, Megan, why don’t you want to celebrate now?” Zatanna asks. 

“Well,” M’gann says, “I finally looked into it, and it all feels a bit silly and hollow. Rudolph’s about conformity. Grandmothers get run over by reindeer. The Grinch was right. This all just feels a little off.” 

“Christmas isn’t about that,” Zatanna says. 

“Is it about the birth of the savior?” Conner asks, his voice patronizing. Zatanna rolls her eyes. 

“It’s about having fun with your friends and family, giggling about stupid traditions and eating good food.” Zatanna shoves a pair of antlers on Conner’s head and gives M’gann a Santa hat. 

“Lets just have some fun, guys,” Zatanna says. This is the first Christmas that Zatanna has spent without her father, and M’gann can tell that Zatanna just needs their support. Whatever it is Zatanna wants to do for Christmas, she wants to go along with it- even though she and Conner don’t understand and he thinks it’s stupid. Conner apparently gets the message too. 

“Alright,” he says, “let’s do this.”  Zatanna plays some music on her phone, and they make a new batch of cookies, a peanut butter batch this time. 

_ Holy infant so tender and mild  _ the woman on the radio sings. 

“Is Jesus a chicken strip?” Conner asks, his voice completely serious. Then, they start laughing so hard that it almost hurts. The oven dings, and they take the cookies out. 

“Let’s start the cinnamon rolls next,” Zatanna suggests. 

“Don’t you think we should make some real food?” Conner asks. 

“This is a Christmas without adults,” Zatanna says, “you think I’m passing up the chance to just make desserts?” M’gann knows that’s going to hurt all of their stomachs’ tomorrow morning, but she doesn’t have it in her to protest. Zatanna should be able to spend this holiday the way that she wants to. The next song starts, and Zatanna smiles widely. She opens her mouth to sing along. 

“Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house Christmas Eve!” Zatanna shout sings.

“You can say there’s no such thing as Santa, but as for me and grandpa we believe!” It’s still morbid, and M’gann isn’t sure how she feels about it, but Conner’s laughing and Zatanna’s smiling and everything feels warm and fuzzy. Zatanna belts the rest of the song along with the recording, and M’gann still doesn’t know what’s happening by the end of it, but she’s not sure that she’s supposed to. 

Maybe this Christmas thing means a little bit more. 


End file.
